Career Options

June 22 - When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

For the most part, when I was younger, I didn't change my mind too much about what I wanted to do with my life. I've totally made up for that now that I'm older, have two (unrelated) college degrees that I'm not using, have a small alphabet of letters after my name, and am planning on going back to school again!

My first career goal was to be an ambulance driver. I didn't want to be an EMT, didn't want to deal with the hurt people, but I just wanted to be able to drive fast and make traffic lights turn green for me!

My second, long-lasting career goal was to be a marine biologist. I even started looking at colleges when I was in middle school that are located in Hawaii and on the East Coast and have great marine biology programs - I was that passionate! In third grade, I would walk to the local library after school with a friend to read books about dolphins and whales and all sorts of marine life. We kept notebooks with all of the research we did. Bottom line: we were marine biology nerds.

I dreamed of swimming with the dolphins but never had the chance to. I dreamed of going on whale watching boats but we don't have those in Wisconsin. I dreamed of learning to scuba dive but I couldn't risk getting water in my ears.
So many reasons {excuses} why my passion fizzled.

I still love science and every career choice I've made up to this point has been science related. Guess that's the one constant in my hopes and dreams!

I love the water as well. Mostly just to swim in, but I see your passion. My uncle who loves biology ended up moving to the KEYS and becoming the person who would help tourist HOOK fish! I would love to have my OFFICE be an underwater sanctuary. So what do you do now to still fulfill your passion for science? hobbies?

I'm working on a post that explores the ins and outs of my job, but to simplify, I work in health care. More specifically, I work in a hospital with mostly surgical patients that have had joints replaced.

It's not what I want to do with my life forever, but for now it fulfills my love of helping sick people and the sciences.

As for hobbies, I'm not lying when I say I don't have time for them - I work 12-13 hour days and don't have much free time!

Shai, while I loved my Lisa Frank dolphins, I saved them for adorning my Trapper Keepers ;) I would have been guilty, too, but I don't think I had any Lisa Frank posters! I remember having one poster of real dolphins in my room, but not a whole lot else.